Friday, June 16, 2017

New Delhi: With security becoming stricter by the day at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), international criminals are adopting innovative ways to smuggle gold into the country.
Custom officials recently busted separate gangs of smugglers who were illegally transporting gold concealed in microwave ovens, toys, wafers and confectionery boxes.
This week, officials seized five kilograms of gold in different forms in separate cases worth approximately Rs 1.4 crore. Officials claim two of the smugglers were arrested for illegal transport at the airport. They added that they also seized around a kilogram of gold (996 gm), which was being smuggled as gold foils concealed inside a carton and packing boxes of wafers, confectionery items and toys.

"The gold foil was so thin and was concealed in such a way that it was difficult to detect it in the X-ray scanning machines," said a senior custom officer, adding that a 50-year-old passenger from Dubai was arrested. In another case, smugglers had concealed 1.4 kg gold inside the coil of a microwave oven. "It is hard to check electronic items as they contain main metal objects," the officer said.
Over 465 grams of gold was also seized from a passenger coming from Muscat. The gold was hidden in the metal bar of a luggage trolley. According to officials, gold smuggling at the airport has taken a major hit due to demonetisation. Customs officials seized about 240 kg of the yellow metal in 2016-17 fiscal, 190 kg less than the seizure effected in 2015-16. Nearly 355 cases of gold smuggling were reported at the IGIA during the financial year 2015-2016.
16/06/17 Shashank Shekhar/India Today